München Marathon, Germany

OCTOBER 2019 – A medal of the Generali München Marathon 2019 lies in the grass of the Olympic stadium in Munich, Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com

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The story behind the image

In 2019 I participated for the second time in the 10 km race of the Generali München Marathon. I was in a good shape and felt strong enough to try beating my personal best which I had achieved just two weeks before (46:52). The conditions were perfect, and my mood was even better. The energy from more than 2,900 starters (just for the 10 km race!) can be hardly described. The start corridor had been erected in front of the Olympic Stadium.

The 10k track lead from the Olympic Park to Schwabing, which is still a hip quarter in Munich, where the crowd turned and ran back to the Park with an awesome finish inside the Olympic Stadium.

Once I had recovered from my run I took this photo of my participation medal lying in the grass of the stadium. I like the bright colors and – of course! – the memories associated.

I did not beat my personal best (just 48:21 which is still awesome in my mind), and I ranked as #319 of all 2,914 finishers, as #272 (of 1,565 men), and as #28 in my age group M50 (of 190 finishers). So, I was at least in the first quarter of the field. Nice.

Yesterday I received an email from the folks at München Marathon that the future of the run remains uncertain, at least from their perspective. The city of Munich has assigned the rights for 2025 and 2026 to another company but they opposed to this. Also, Generali – their main sponsor for many years – has jumped ship, so the funding remains unclear as well.

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Design ideas

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The high resolution image

Capture Date & Time	13-OCT-2019, 11:35
Location	Munich, Germany
Camera	Samsung Galaxy S5 neo (SM-G903F)
ISO	40
Exposure	1/450 sec at f/1.9
Digital Image Source Format	JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB
Edited Image Format	JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB
Edited Image Dimensions	2531 x 4500 Pixels
Copyright	© by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com